Drabbles, Dreams and Deleated Scenes
by Child of the Dragon
Summary: Collections of my random incompleted wannabe fics, ranging from anything in AtlA to DBZ and the whole bag of chips in between. Randomness insues, watch for falling coconuts. T to be safe because I can be twisted.
1. Table of Contents

**Drabbles, Dreams and Deleted Scenes**

Hello Readers!!

If you're here, you've probably run out or other stuff of mine to read and still want more (Yay! I'm Loved!). Or you're just bored and have a few extra minutes to kill and this, as stupid as it my have looked, was better then something else you found to occupy your time (Boo! You Whores::stabbed:: Ahh!! I Jest! I Jest!!) Well, allow me to explain...

As of late, I've been surfing the _Avatar the last Airbender_ Fanfiction area rather then the DragonballZ one and I've noticed a lot of new lingo going around. Granted I was never up to speed on fanfiction lingo even when I was surfing the DBZ fanfiction area (**Me:** What the hell does SLASH mean?) but there is one little new word I've figured out and kinda...want to stab (not sure why though...maybe some inner conflict or something). The word is DRABBLE.

Drabble, as far as I've been able to piece together, basically means: a written piece of work that is unrefined, raw, has little to no plot and is pretty much a pointless single expression made about something by one writer or another. So THAT'S what all those crappy wanna-be fic things I write are!!! Horray! It has a name!

A lot of people, at least that I've noticed in the AtlA fanfiction area, have taken to posting these random little sputs of nothing on this site, usually under one title and not all separately Thank God. This is basically my collection of drabbles ranging anywhere from DBZ to AtlA and anything swept up in between.

Also, as the title implies, I've found that I have some scenes in some of my fics where, in the editing process, I may realize they might not be needed. But somehow, I have issues deleting them forever so I'll post them here. Usually, drastic plot twists are the deleted scenes, and I just thought that the title I picked out for this was cool sooo...pretty much all your getting is drabbles and deleted scenes. I predict that some of my drabbles may someday grow into an actual fic...if I nurture it enough and stuff...but mostly, it's just sputzy stuff I wanted to share so you could waste moments of your life reading my crap.

ALSO, I post these to maybe inspire someone else to write something beautiful. And hopefully worth while. In the next chapter, one of the many drabbles tells that I found this one lined drabble about Zuko being drunk and running off to confess his love for Aang and stuff. I just felt it needed to be expanded and started that process only to be yelled at by my Beta to work on my SoZu fic, _Neutral Ground_.

For your reading enjoyment, here's a lay down of this crazy puppy so you can pick and choose what you want to read and what you want to avoid because I'm not separating the peas form the carrots for this children; you'll eat your vegetables and like it!! (Or just pick them out yourself...) This "chapter" will be updated as regularly as the posting of other chapters to keep everyone up to date, okay? Kay, have at it!

Table of Contents:

**Chapter 1: Zuko's A Man Whore** — _Avatar: the Last Airbender;_ I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I have severe issues with who I think Zuko should be romantically involved with: Aang or Sokka. This is just a bunch of crazy Yaoi ideas running through my head about his love life and who's in that boy's pants.

**Chapter 2: Sokka/Toph Get Action Too** — _Avatar: the Last Airbender;_ Just long enough to make it's own thing, I think. Born of a random stress dream, it seems I've once again followed my Pirate ways and jumped Ships. Cuteness ensues...

**Chapter 3: Goodbye Jet** — _Avatar: the Last Airbender;_ Unlike all the other fangirls out there, I didn't instantly want to jump in bed with Jet upon first seeing him and once I actually met him I was even less enthusiastic about wanting to be nice to him. But Jet is one of the few Muses I've had that makes me feel...things I'm not sure I can describe. I've wanted to do a lot of things with his character, but being too busy and him not being my absolute favorite like Sokka or Zuko, I constantly pushed him aside for other things. Now, I really wish I hadn't because he needed more love...

**Chapter 4: Untitled Final Exam 1** — _Full Metal Alchemist;_ A story around Edward and Alphonse Elric when they were just young children. A (failed?) look into Ed's fascination with Alchemy and the feelings that reflect on his father as he studies and practices it. Yay, Sibling interaction!

**Chapter 5: Untitled Final Exam 2** — _Naruto;_ A story set seemingly in our time about Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. They're in foster care because their god-forsaken father has abandoned them and their mother is mentally unstable in a psychiatric hospital. That doesn't mean they don't still love their birth mother as they steal away to go visit her, but how do all the dynamic recent events reflect on Gaara's feelings?

**Chapter 6: Full Metal Pirates...Or Something** — _FullMetal Alchemist_ slight _Pirates of the Caribbean_ Often when I go to write a fic or I get an idea for one I start off by writing up a quick sketch of what I want to happen so I don't forget about it. Usually these skeches are pretty vauge and leave a lot of room for me to stear off in a totally different direction altogether if I so wish (which I tend to do A LOT). And generally they're just a few parahgraphs long and don't say much about the ending. Well here's a more detailed version of a plot for something I may very well never start: a fan manga. Based loosly after this ghost story a friend once made up when we were real little kids. I was always rather fond of it, even if I couldn't remember everything that happened.

COMING SOON TO A DRABBLE NEAR YOU: Deleted Scenes from my SoZu fic, _Neutral Ground_. Because, I'm cutting a lot of stuff I thought was pretty cool. :( Le sigh.


	2. Zuko's A Man Whore

**Part One: Zuko's a Man Whore  
**::gets attacked by all Zuko Fan Girls looking to settle down with the prince and shot several times in the head:: OW! My Spleen!! Writter Abuse, WRITER ABUSE::hides in bomb shelter::

* * *

Penguin Meat  
(This was an idea I got from one of MANY random anime yaoi dreams I've had. It started with Sokka's voice saying a line from episode 20, "If there's one thing we know about Zuko it's that he'll find a way to survive." Then it kinda goes into an alternate version of that episode.)

"I'm hungry," Aang muttered against Zuko's chest.

The fire teen halted his pace and set the boy on the ground, easing to a sitting position beside him. His own stomach was beginning the sounds of hunger complaint and his feet were sore from walking. Looking at the horizon, he wasn't sure how much sunlight he had left before dark over took them. A blizzard had effaced their earlier tracks Zuko had made in his travels and it didn't look like the Avatar's friends were going to find them. He turned back to the boy sitting beside him, his arms and legs bound tightly so he couldn't run away.

Zuko scooped up some snow in his hands, his fingers turning red as he dug them into the coldness. Carefully, he heated the air around his palms at a slow rate so that it melted and didn't evaporate. "Here," he said as he held his fingers to Aang's mouth. The boy drank without complaint though Zuko had to wonder how long the child would last on just water alone. Already he was beginning to look pale and his energy was dwindling; before he'd struggled and screamed against his restraints and Zuko had to drag him by his collar to take him anywhere, but now he was calm enough that Zuko was lucky enough to hear him ask for food. But he hadn't planned on this trip taking as long as it was. He looked at the horizon and this time strained to see the other end of the glacier, but nothing was in sight save for a small group of penguins waddling around. At least he had found what they would be eating for dinner.

* * *

Untitled  
(An idea that popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone until I got it down on paper. I think I originally wanted to make a music video with this scene idea thing in mind...Hmmm...)

"You saved me once," Aang stated. "And within that same 12 hour timespan I saved you. We're even now; why won't you leave me alone?"

"I need you," Zuko replied.

Aang chanced a look at him seeing only the rubicund mark that was engraved into the teen's skin. "I need you too."

It was a moment before Zuko responded with, "for what?"

"Ending this war, bringing peace back to the world."

"Learning Firebending to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, you mean. You don't need me, but you could _use_ me."

Aang nodded once as he turned his eyes downcast. He'd hoped Zuko wouldn't see that truth in his words. "Yeah," he quietly said.

* * *

Chained  
(This one came to me after reading another collection of about 100 one sentence drabbles on Zuko/Aang yaoi. One of the lines described Zuko going down to the helm of his ship while drunk to confess his love for Aang or something like that. It was one simple line I felt needed to be expressed a little more. Originally this started as a Zuko-rapes-Aang drabble idea thing, but it turned a little sweeter cuz...I love Aang too much to do that to him I guess.)

He is mine now.

Stormy grey eye gaze almost fearfully up at me as I make my approach, the clicking of my boots against the metal floor of my ship the only sound that is made. I stop before him, his petite body folded up neatly as he sits with his knees pulled to his chest and arms cradled in his lap. Falling from his wrists and ankles are thick, heavy chains that attach to the wall. Ordinarily, I might have been afraid that he could Firebend his way through them, but since learning that the boy has barely begun his Avatar training I think a little false hope could be risked.

Frightened lips trembled against my own as I press them together. I penetrated his mouth with my tongue and stole from him his very first kiss, though if it was just his first in general or the first from a boy like him I was unsure. Either way, this was all too new to him and he was too fresh to say no, to push away. Easily I dominated him; wrapping my arms around his shoulders and waist I pulled him close to me so that our bodies meshed flush against each other. His arms were crossed over his chest, the chaines jingling in uncertinty as his body shifted about in my grasp. A whimper from him only worsened my arousal, but I sensed that if he didn't get justification soon he'd try to rebel and then things would get very rough. For him. Reluctantly, I pulled out and loosened my grip, but I dare not let him go even as he was chained.

He lightly touched his lips with his fingers as he searched my eyes for an answer. "That taste," he finally choked out. Not the question I knew he was trying to ask; it must still be too unreal for him. "It's bitter."

"Alcohol," I say. "To dull this, for me. I know what I want but I don't know if I'll want to remember."

"Remember what Zuko?"

I touch his face, a soft smooth cheek with just a hint of baby fat. When he gets older he'll be a real lady killer and I wonder if he's realized yet how beautiful he really is. Especially those eyes. Does he really know how much those eyes captivate me? Hypnotize me? Draw me in and kill me?

"I lust for you," is all I can whisper before I press against his lips once more.

* * *

**End Part One**


	3. SokkaToph Get Action Too

**Part two: Sokka/Toph Get Action Too**

Fear of Bats  
(Another of many random dream inspired fics. I think Toph and Sokka were suppose to be lost in the Cave of Two Lovers or something, had the slight impression Zuko was there too, but that might've just been the torch light. I was actually stressing over a missed psychology test I hadn't studied for and needed to make up. It was on learning. If you take psychology, I challenge you to make up the diagram of classic conditioning Toph displays in this.)

Toph screamed and covered her head, dropping to the ground as a flock of winged creatures flew over both of them and down the tunnel they'd come past. Involuntarily Sokka started laughing at her as Toph is is not the type of person to react in such a way to a fuzzy little thing like a bat. He covered his face reflexively, knowing Toph was also the type of person who would not take kindly to be laughed at and waited for the sucker puch to the face that never came. (chuckling nervously, he lowered his guard and looked over. Instantly Sokka began to feel bad for Toph still hadn't risen from the floor and now he could hear the muffled sound of crying.

"Toph?" Sokka asked gently. "Toph, c'mon, you can't honestly be that upset about a few harmless bats." He laid a hand on her shoulder and came closer to try and help her up. "They're gone now; every thing's going to be--"

POW!! Sucker punch to the face. Delayed, but still delivered.

Sokka rubbed at his sore cheek, his face flushing red in minor anger. "HEY!" he called as Toph once again regained her composure. "I was trying to be nice! What the heck was THAT for?!"

"Don't ask stupid questions," Toph replied as she sat down beside him. Sokka tried to hit her back, but she caught his fist and held it still.

"Well, Fine!" Sokka cried as he retched his hand free from her firm grasp. "Do you at least want to tell me what the panic attack was about?"

"No," Toph firmly stated, not even turning her head toward him as she started unblinkingly ahead. Sokka furrowed his brow, frustrated by her own stubbornness but yielded to her wishes all the same. For a moment they both sat together in silence, each stewing in their own tumultuous thoughts.

"Things in the air are a lot harder to see then things on the ground," Toph eventually said. "I mean, I can still hear them and all, but it's harder to judge exactly where."

"You do alright when rocks are flying at your head," Sokka replied.

"Because I have a connection with them. You don't get it; there's this understanding between a bender and their element, this trust. I know the earth. But living independent things, you guys are harder to predict because you're moving of your own free will in ways I can only imagine and can't control even in the slightest."

"Still," Sokka tried to reason, unsure of where the girl was going with this. "It's no reason to be scared of a little bat."

"When I was little, say two or three years old, I was just getting the hang of being able to see by feeling through my environment. I was just learning to walk and explore and all that, ya know. Well, I was outside one day, or night but of course I can't say for sure...Anyway, I turned my head in responds to this chirping sound I heard and a baby bat got tangled in my hair, okay? And of course I was really freaked out by it. I'm sure it didn't help that my parents were just as scared. My dad even killed the bat when they finally got it out of my hair, he was so upset. And of course I didn't see it really, but I still...well, I just don't want that to happen ever again."

"You weren't scared of those Vulture Bees we crossed paths with in the dessert," the water boy commented.

"Yeah, but that's cuz they're a lot bigger then a tiny little baby bat. And at least they can see where I am with their own eyes. A bat is almost like me, they can't see real well. That's why they make all that chirping, they listen for the echoes to come back to them like I feel for vibrations in the Earth..."

"It was like your father killed a part of you when he killed that bat," Sokka said, stating what Toph didn't want to. "Is that why you wanted to come away with us?"

The girl nodded, her face covered by her long dark hair. Sokka wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. Reluctantly, Toph eventually rested her head on his chest, moist tears catching on her thick eyelashes. "You wouldn't do the same as my father if that happened again, would you Sokka?"

"Of course not," the boy replied. He let her pull away and wipe at the tears. "Besides, if I did Aang would probably kick my butt for cruelty to animals." She chuckled a bit, drly remarking how anyone could kick Sokka's butt.

"We should probably try getting out of here, for real this time," Toph said as she started to stand up. "Gosh, how did Katara and Aang do this anywa—HEY!" Something was pulled over her head and when she reached up to push it out of her already blind eyes, she felt that it was cloth. "Sokka! What's this?! What'd you do?!"

"I made you a covering for your head, silly," he said wrapping a bare arm across her shoulders. "So now you don't even have to worry bout bats getting tangled up in your hair, because it's all safely tucked under here." He playfully knocked on her head.

"But I don't understand!" Toph said. "Where'd you get the hat from?" He took a hold of her hand and placed it on his chest. She became instantly aware of two things, the steady pulse that beat there and the fact that her hand was rubbing up against bare naked skin.

"My heart," he simply said.

* * *

**  
End Part Two  
**(I just realized something: TOPH'S AN EARTHBENDER!!! They SHOULDN'T be lost in the Cave of Lovers because she would just part the rocks like Moses parted the sea. Uhhh...Use your imaginations kiddies and come up with your own excuses for why Toph seems to have forgotten she can Bend Earth...) 


	4. GoodBye Jet

**Good-bye To You, Dear Jet**

"You're Fire Nation?!"

I turned my eyes to the boy who two minutes ago stood beside me. Not anymore, he drew away as though I was a snake; a poisoned, treacherous, cursed animal. My expression softened for him as his grew more disgusted. I had met many people like him, prejudicially, and misinterpreting; I bore their scorn for it was easier for them to hate me. He was the first one that came along, I thought he was different.

"Jet," I whispered and his face became more livid, more hateful.

"Don't you dare speak my name like you know me!" he said. "You Lied To Me!"

"I couldn't very well tell you the truth," I said trying to explain myself. "You would have killed me Jet! And hadn't you just gone through the trouble of saving me?"

"Then Why?!" He shouted, accusing.

"Why what, Jet?" I asked, my voice softer. I didn't want him to drew away, I didn't want him to leave too. If only he'd look me into the eyes, if only he'd stop trying to envision my body bleeding to death from gashes made by his swords. I feared those swords, but not as much as I feared losing him to the darkness of unrestrained hate.

"Why didn't you just leave then? Didn't you fear for your life when I TOLD you I hate Firebenders?! Why did you stay knowing that I detest your kind?!"

My chance. He'd asked. I could only hope he'd be open minded enough to pay attention to the response. "Because Jet, it wasn't good for you. You can't let this hate consume who you are. Would your parents have wanted—"

"You Don't Know What My Parents Were Like!!" _Shhhink_. The unsheathing of those swords. "Stop pretending you know everything!! You don't know anything!"

"I know your parents must have loved you!" I cried. "Jet they wouldn't want this! They wouldn't want you to become a killer! Jet, You need help; please let me help you!" One step closer, fast glint of metal puts a sharp edge between us.

"You? You're the reason I hate all Firebender's in the first place!"

He was crossing lines he shouldn't with me. But of course he was, it was a test; if I gave in and exploded at him his point would be prove true. "I didn't kill your parents, Jet."

"No, but you just proved that all Firebenders are deceitful little bitches!"

Pushing buttons he shouldn't, playing with fire. How badly did this boy need to be burned before his will broke and yielded willing to the flames? No, how bad was the damage already from the last time he was burned? He prodded me to lash out at him from spite, because he had been burned he dared fire to do it to him again. After all, lighting never strikes twice in the same spot, right? But did he even know that Firebenders could also control lightening?

"I lied to protect you Jet," I said calmly. "If you can't see that you're sicker then I thought."

"Protect me from _what?_"

"There's a lot of toxicity inside of you Jet. Hatred, anger, sadness, pain...I know you don't really want any of it." Open arms, I"ll welcome him if he'd only come forward. He holds his sword out a little straighter, but it trembles in his grip. "Please jet, just trust me. I won't hurt you, you know me..."

"You're Fire Nation!!" he repeated with a tremble in his voice only I could hear. He sounded like he was trying to brainwash himself against all that had happened between us. "You l-lied to me!"

"But you love me," I whispered softly. "I know you do. And you never would've known you loved me if I hadn't lied. Isn't that worth something?"

"How can I _possibly_ love you," he said in return. "You're _Fire Nation_..." _Clank_. The drop of his sword. Eyes look away, glistening under the pale moon's full light. I wait to see if he'll come to me, but he makes no move. So I take a tentative step toward him, fearing the bite of those swords which could so easily be picked up by his swift hands again.

"Oh Jet," I whisper touching his arm. "I am so sorry you had to find out like this. Please understand, I wanted to tell you when you were truly ready to hear it." I reach up, barely touch the fine tips if his brown hair and he turns away again, his back meeting my face. "Jet..."

"I've got nothing more to say to you," he said. "Don't pretend to know me, you know nothing." And then his feet took him away, to where I wasn't sure.

"Ummm..." came the voice of a young child to my right. The Avatar needed my attention now, it wasn't yet time to cry. I pull a smile onto my features, I will the tears to hold, just for a little longer.

"Oh Aang, I will teach you Firebending as soon as you are ready to start learning," I say. "I know you came to the North Pole for a Waterbender teacher and I'm unsure of how far you must have progressed. I also understand the hurry you may be in to learn all your studies, but do be patient and take you time."

"That wasn't what I was going to ask," he said. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Heh, I'm sure I'll be fine," I reply. I turn to leave myself, not knowing the city I have nowhere to go but as long as everyone was gathered there to feast and celebrate the arrival of the Avatar, the city would be deserted and anywhere was a better place to cry then there in fount of so many people. "It's funny," I say, pushing a loose strand of black hair from my face and behind my ear. "I never really liked him at first. In fact, I hated his guts almost as much as he would've hated me...as he hates me now..." Two tears race down my cheeks. "But I—I learned to love him with time. Heh, isn't that so ironic; through hate I came to love. Through love, he came to hate." One more fleeting look at where his body had disappeared from me.

"Good-Bye to you then, my dear Jet."

* * *

A/N: Uhhh...so who saw the latest episode of Avatar? Yeah, that would be me. I never lreally liked Jet, but I don't think I hated him enough to want him to _die_. In fact, he became a Muse not too long ago and now I kinda feel like he's being ripped from me too soon. So I just sorta whipped his up. The OC in there is my character Phoenix, Though I guess if you want you could pretend it was Zuko...If you want Yaoi...Or maybe Azula...W/E, it's just my crppy attempt to say good by to Jet, if he really does die...


	5. Untitled Final Exam 1

**Untitled Final Exam 1  
**(For my creative writing class fimal exam we had to write two short stories based from a list of writing promps and then a story continuation. This was one of the writing promps. The prompt for this one was to simply use the following words somewhere in the story: little boy, torn page, market and cart. My newly accuired Full Metal Alchemist Muses took over and sputtered this little bit of fluffy nonsense at me. Enjoy.)

* * *

The little boy turned a page and looked at an inscription he'd memorized years ago. His father's handwriting drabbled on in a formal tone, seeming to talk to someone over his head rather then a little seven-year-old boy, like the man who wrote it didn't think that he was capable of understanding the complex scientific studies written there. "But I do understand," he muttered to the page as it babbled on. He placed a hand over it, but words seeped through his splayed fingers. It gasped as he pulled his fingers in, crinkling the slightly yellow paper the whispering ink was printed on. The he crunched it up in the center of his fist and tore it away from the others like it. "I Do Understand! I Do! And You Shouldn't Pretend Like I Don't Exist!"

"Brother?!" a shocked and confused voice called out from the other side of the room. "What are you doing? Father will be mad if he—"

"It doesn't matter Al!" the boy said. "When is he coming home, huh? Never! I can do whatever I want to these books and he'd never know! More importantly, he wouldn't care because he doesn't care about us or what we do!"

"T-that's not t-true," Al stuttered over his words, taken back by his brother's angry outbursts. "I care! And Mom cares too! Don't pull out the pages, Ed! It's disrespectful!"

He looked at the torn page in his balled up fist at first feeling kind of bad for the deed, but then the underlying hatred for the man who'd put down effort into it resurfaced again. "And what he did to us _isn't_ disrespectful?" he asked. Ed dropped the first sheet and reached to tear out another but Al lunged and tackled him first. "Ow!" he cried as they landed heavily on the floor. "Get off me Al! Let go! It's My Book!"

"No it's not! It's Dad's!" Al said as he tried to wrestle the endangered book from his brother's hands.

"But he isn't here to care, is he?"

"So then it's ours!"

"Which means half of it is mine!"

"And the other half is mine so I have a say in what happens to it as well!"

"Then why are you objecting? I'll divide it in half and you can keep your share to do with what you want!"

"That's not the point brother! I don't want half a book; I want a full one to share with--"

_RRIIIIIIIPP!!_

Both boys fell backward as the stressed paper and leather object gave out and split itself between them. Pages flew up through the air and fluttered down again, raining printed words on their heads. Al looked around once at the display and his eyes began to water over in a mixture of sadness and anger; he wasn't able to save the book from its destroyer and had only aided in its demise. "Now look what you've gone and done brother!" he said as he started collecting the pages and trying to put them back in order. But Ed wasn't marling at his feat and it was only after Al realized how unfamiliar he had been with that volume did he stop and check on why.

The other brother had backed himself into a corner, pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in the arms folded over them. It took Al a moment to realize his brother was crying, a sight he didn't often witness. Thinking his sibling might've been hurt in the scuffle, he abandoned his attempts at fixing the book himself and bounded to his brother's side demanding to know what the matter was. Ed lifted his head only enough for his glistening eyes to peak through the thick strands of hair that shadowed his face.

"Why does he hate us Al?" Ed questioned. "You and Mom are such wonderful people, everyone says so…And I…I only act the way I do _because_ he left. But I can be good, honest I can. I'd be good forever if he came home and then he could see just what a wonderful life this really is and he'd never go away again, right Al? So why then? Why does he stay away and never come home?"

"I don't know brother," Al replied softly. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and coaxed Ed to lift his head further so he could wipe away at the tears on his cheeks. "But maybe what Mother tells us is all true Ed; at least, that's what I choose to believe. Maybe he's just away on some business and can't come home right now."

"Yeah right," Ed said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Maybe he's just stupid."

Al frowned sensing his brother locking up the dangerous feelings he carried for their father. He couldn't say he cared all that much for a man he didn't know that well himself, but still to see his sibling full of so much strife worried him. "Maybe he's a top secret spy," he said. "And maybe he was on a mission that put him behind enemy lines and he was captured. Now he's trying to escape and get home to us, only he's gotta do so in complete secrecy and---"

"Al," Ed interrupted as he laid the tips of his fingers over his brother's mouth. "You have too much faith in someone who doesn't deserve it."

"Well, you don't have enough! I have to make up for it, okay?!" Al countered but he let the topic drop. For a while, both of them sat in silence as they examined the damage that was splayed all across the study's floor. "I'm still upset you know," Al finally voiced.

"Hmm?" Ed responded, turning to look at the other. "Upset about what?"

Al shot his brother an angry glare but replied in a much gentler tone then he could have, "for tearing up the book brother, what else?"

"Oh," was all Ed had to say to that. He heaved a sigh and got up, starting to collect the loose pages. "Don't worry about it Al, it was just a book." He felt the stern glare of his brother on his back and quickly added, "I mean, you're thankful it's something that we can fix easily and not a broken leg or arm, right? Don't worry; I can put these all in the right order in no time."

"I guess," Al said. "But brother, we don't know how to mend books."

Finished with gathering the sheets, he then started ruffling through them and filing the pages in the order they had been before torn apart. "We don't, but I'm sure there's someone in town who knows how too. Mom will probably want us to go fetch some vegetables or sugar or even some of that awful white stuff from cows eventually; we'll just take the book with us then in our little wagon cart and have someone take a look at it, okay?"

Al nodded his agreement.


	6. Untitled Final Exam 2

**Untitled Final Exam 2  
**(For my creative writing class fimal exam we had to write two short stories based from a list of writing promps and then a story continuation. This was one of the writing promps. The prompt for this one was to write a story about an adopted 8 year old boy with a rose being a significant object and having it set in a bus station. As with my pervious chapter, this one was taken over by Naruto Muses, Kankuro, Gaara and Temari. I know Kankuro isn't the oldest of the three sand siblings (at the time I thought he was) and I know I never got around to acually saying their names, but trust me it's really them. Enjoy.)

* * *

They did this all the time.

Well okay, not exactly _this_ but something very much like it. Being the oldest of the three siblings, his brother had a birthright to call all the shots while he and his sister would follow along obediently. There might have been days where they would resist an order but in the end they would always follow through because now they were all they had left in the world and he was the only one they could look up to.

Months ago their father had taken off, on the run for the law, and since their mother had never been a big part of the picture before, the three of them fell right into the system of foster care. His brother's rebellious nature had landed him in another house where he would be an only child and "receive the attention he needed," him and his sister were kept together in another house not far down the street. None of them were happy to begin with, but this didn't make it any easier. So it wasn't a surprise really that they often were sitting at the bus station, waiting for one of the large public transportation devices to come carry them away from the city, yet this time he knew it was different. His sibling was conducting something else. Usually it was, "grab your jacket and move," but he'd told them this time to take their time getting ready; wash your face, comb your hair, put on your nicest clothes. When he questioned his brother's motives all he had said was, "we're going to see Mom."

He didn't remember his mother very well. According to his sister she had to leave not too long after he was born. He had a picture that he'd kept with him over the 7 years she'd been gone, a picture of her and dad with his two siblings. His siblings told him that he was there too, but he never could see where; it was taken before he was born after all.

The bus pulled into the station. His sister's hand wrapped around the fingers of the only hand he had free and kept him close by her side as they made their way to the bus they needed to take. In the hand that wasn't being tugged along was a single red rose. "Give it to Mommy when we see her, okay?" his sister had said when she handed it to him that morning. She often had to remind him not to be rough with it when he got fidgety, but otherwise it had remained relatively in tact and safe. As his brother paid their fare, he wondered why; why was it so important that he go see a woman he hardly knew and give her a single red rose? Being no more then eight years however, he wasn't that concerned about it, at least not for now. His brother got them into a lot of trouble most of the time, but then he also kept them out of serious danger so he wasn't concerned that things wouldn't turn out alright.

The bus rolled along and he turned in his seat to stare out the window at the world passing by.


End file.
